FedEx Calling Indy: Your Box is Here

This is happening a long way from Brighton, and the story comes from World Net Daily, so the usual caveats about reliability apply. But if it is true, and the Ethiopians aren’t just pulling our leg, it’s going to be the biggest day in biblical archeology since the premier of Raiders of the Lost Ark:

The patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia says he will announce to the world Friday the unveiling of the Ark of the Covenant, perhaps the world’s most prized archaeological and spiritual artifact, which he says has been hidden away in a church in his country for millennia, according to the Italian news agency Adnkronos.

Abuna Pauolos, in Italy for a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI this week, told the news agency, “Soon the world will be able to admire the Ark of the Covenant described in the Bible as the container of the tablets of the law that God delivered to Moses and the center of searches and studies for centuries.”

The announcement is expected to be made at 2 p.m. Italian time from the Hotel Aldrovandi in Rome. Pauolos will reportedly be accompanied by Prince Aklile Berhan Makonnen Haile Sellassie and Duke Amedeo D’Acosta.

According to Pauolos, the actual Ark has been kept in one church, but to defend the treasure, a copy was placed in every single church in Ethiopia.

He said a museum is being built in Axum, Ethiopia, where the Ark will be displayed. A foundation of D’Acosta will fund the project.

If it really is the Ark that they are bringing out (and again, I have no idea whether it is, or they just think it is), the most interesting question to be asked of the patriarch is, why now?

I saw some “documentary” on this … I think it was the History Channel, or maybe the Discovery channel, so consider the source. It was interesting and they made a case for why the Ark was moved to Ethiopia. But most of the reasoning was based on post-hoc hypotheses (ie. we haven’t found it in Jerusalem, so it must be somewhere else, etc.)